This invention relates generally to beverage dispensing apparatus, and more particularly to beverage dispensing apparatus for dispensing conventional beverages with added flavoring.
The apparatus of this invention is especially (albeit not exclusively) suited for dispensing flavored beverages (e.g. soft drinks). Soft drink beverages are typically dispensed from a conventional beverage dispenser in which a base beverage in the form of a concentrated syrup, such as a cola syrup, is dispensed along with a diluting agent, such as carbonated water, into a cup. The dispensing system includes a housing unit, a dispensing nozzle, fluid lines connecting the nozzle to the source of base beverage syrup and a source of diluting agent, a valve for controlling the dispensing of the base beverage and a switch, such as a lever or a keyboard, for controlling actuation of the valve.
Flavoring these standard base beverages with additional flavoring such as cherry or vanilla flavoring has become particularly popular. Presently, flavoring is added to the standard base beverage and packaged as a pre-mix flavored syrup before being hooked up to the fluid lines of the beverage dispenser for dispensing in a conventional manner. For example, beverages sold under the tradenames Cherry Coke and Vanilla Coke are produced by admixing cherry or vanilla flavoring with the base cola syrup to create a flavored cola syrup that can be dispensed from a standard beverage dispenser.
However, adding flavoring to the base beverage prior to dispensing can lead to non-uniform dispersion or layered stratification of the flavoring throughout the base beverage, resulting in a noticeable taste variance as the beverage is consumed. In addition, pre-mixing the flavoring requires additional processing equipment, thereby increasing the cost of the flavored beverage and the time required to create the flavored beverage.
It is also known to manually add flavoring to a base beverage after it has been dispensed into a cup. This method of beverage flavoring also results in increased time to create the beverage and layered stratification of the flavoring throughout the beverage. In addition, since various sizes of cups require correspondingly varying amounts of added flavoring, mixing of the flavoring after the base beverage is dispensed may not assure that the proper ratio of flavoring to base beverage is maintained from one cup size to another.